A beginning programmer

[Chris Angelico]

On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 8:06 AM, Eric <egriffith92 at gmail.com> wrote:
> But I just don't know what
> to do with it, I don't have any problems that need to be solved...

There are always more problems to be solved than people willing to
solve them! It's just a matter of finding ones you're interested in.

Several people have recommended looking at bugtrackers and such.
Another good source of programming tasks is automation - look for any
task that you or someone else does repeatedly, and write a script that
does it. That can range from a half-dozen lines of shell script up to
full-on commercial-grade packages (if you think about it, an
accounting system is nothing more than reports automation).

Learn as many languages as you can. Develop the skill of picking up a
new language and mastering it; obscure languages have just as
interesting problems as do mainstream ones, and being able to learn
Pike might suddenly come in handy when you find yourself invited to
code on somebody's MUD some day!

Chris Angelico
Currently striving to be the Mr Melas of programming languages